Claudio Augugliaro‡§, Rasmus Worsøe Havmøller|, Ibra E. Monti¶, Linnea Worsøe Havmøller|, Choikhand Janchivlamdan‡, Lkhagvasuren Badamjav#Corresponding author: Claudio Augugliaro ( claudio.augugliaro@unil.ch ) Academic editor: Terrence C Demos © Claudio Augugliaro, Rasmus Worsøe Havmøller, Ibra E. Monti, Linnea Worsøe Havmøller, Choikhand Janchivlamdan, Lkhagvasuren Badamjav. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Citation:
Augugliaro C, Havmøller RW, Monti IE, Havmøller LW, Janchivlamdan C, Lkhagvasuren B (2020) Non-volant mammal inventory of western Mongolian-Manchurian Grassland Ecoregion: a biogeographic crossroad worth preserving. Check List 16(2): 287-301. https://doi.org/10.15560/16.2.287 |  |
The extensive Mongolian grasslands hosts a high variety of micro-habitats which wildlife uses as corridors that enable species to expand their range. Between May 2017 and March 2018, we conducted an intensive survey in the Mongolian-Manchurian Grassland Ecoregion using camera trapping, field transects, live trapping and opportunistic observations, in mountain outcrops, grass steppe and sand dune habitats across seasons. Our aim was to compile the first satisfactory inventory of mammals based on scientific methods for a diverse landscape in the Mongolian provinces of Tov and Dundgovi. Furthermore, our research seeks to fill in knowledge gaps on species distribution and range expansions in the endangered west Mongolian-Manchurian Grassland ecoregion and identify biodiversity hotspot areas encompassed in this biogeographic crossroad. We recorded 31 species of non-volant mammals, including a globally Endangered species and two Near Threatened species, according to the IUCN Red List, and three species listed in Appendix II of CITES.